Hello, I’m the movie gamer (or Whit Dennis depending on who you are asking). This blog will be my very own personal editorial, meaning that everything posted here will be my OWN opinion. If you do not want to be spoiled then don’t click on the post until you have already seen the film or played the game.

Thanks for viewing and if you like what you read please share it to other people who may be interested!

Microsoft Just had their presentation and announced the Xbox One X. They are calling it “The world’s most powerful console…” And despite this claim, it really doesn’t look like the worlds most “powerful” console.

Now I’m not doubting that this is the world’s most powerful console. I think that right now, that that statement is technically correct. I mean look at these specs! A 6 teraflop GPU, 326 GB/sec memory bandwidth and 12GB GDDR5 of graphic memory! Damn, That sounds more powerful than the Gaming PC I own. But what’s that? it’s 500$??? That’s a lot of money… but surely Microsoft has a fresh line up of games for the Xbox one X that will justify this 500$ price tag. Let’s take a look at the games and find out!

First up Is Forza Motorsport 7. Now as a non-fan of forza I’ll try to explain the game to the best of my knowledge. Forza is kind of like a racing simulator, sort of like Gran Turismo for the PlayStation. It’s actually one of the most popular racing game franchises of all time. Now this is just a preference, but personally I don’t like realistic racing games. As someone who isn’t interested in cars, I’m more of a fan of a more arcady racing game. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with the game, but I’m not going to buy a 500$ console to play this the game. Why would I when It’s also playable on the original Xbox One?

Next Is Metro Exodus, Sequel to Metro: Last Light. Now what makes this game interesting is that it’s not only a sequel to 2013’s Metro Last Light it’s also a sequel to the Metro Book Series written by Dmitry Glukhovsky. I can’t say anything about the quality of the game since I haven’t seen any gameplay or played any of the previous games. But guess what, it’s also coming out on ps4 and PC so when it does come out in 2018 I’ll probably save my 500$ and get it for one of those!

Next is Assassins Creed Origins. Great, another Assassins creed game, how many is that? 10? Jesus, how many times can you make the same game? I’m not very excited for this game because I find assassins creed to be boring, the “follow that guy” missions get old fast. The only game that I didn’t completely dislike was black flag, and that was because it had less to do with assassins creed than the rest of them. So I can safely say that I’m not getting the Xbone X for this game. Plus this is also going to be on the original Xbox One, so even If you don’t have an Xbox in the first place what is stopping you from getting a normal Xbox one to get this game? It would be a lot cheaper that’s for sure!

Oh good! another game that I can get for the PC! There goes another game that doesn’t look like a must buy for the Xbone X.

Next up is deep rock galactic. I Already I don’t like this games aesthetic. It’s low poly and cartoony, and set on an alien planet… sound familiar?

But despite looking like No Man’s Sky, it’s actually a cave explorer multiplayer game. It’s four players and the game has you going through a cave fighting hordes of aliens. Sort of like left 4 dead. It’s in pre-alpha, meaning that it isn’t going to be released any time soon. So far there have been 5 different games and none of them make me feel like I need to get an Xbone X.

The next game that was shown was State of Decay 2. Again, I haven’t played the last State of decay but it looks like another zombie game. They didn’t show anything that separates itself from the other million zombie games out in the market so I see no need to get this one.

Next is the Darwin project. It kind of looks like the hunger games mixed with the cartoony style of over watch. What separates this game from other multiplayer games like this is the abilities you can use. You can use Different powers like a force-field and invisibility. From the trailer, it looks like it’s trying to be a more competitive game. But you know what they say about online competitive games… “they are only as good as the community that plays them” and we all know the type of player-base that Xbox attracts.

Then they showed Minecraft. Since Minecraft is on every gaming console imaginable, I really don’t feel the need to get a 500$ Xbox because of this game, why would I? It looks the same on every platform I get it on. What would I be gaining by playing this on an Xbox One X?

O.K. This one actually looks pretty good. It’s called Dragon Ball FighterZ, and for once it’s a traditional fighting game! Look how good the gameplay looks! Not only does the game look like the show, It looks like a solid game! It will be released on the normal Xbox One in 2018 with Xbox One X “enhancements”. Although it looks pretty good, It doesn’t look all that technically impressive. Maybe it will run smoother on the Xbox One X, but I feel like this game can be played on any console on the market right now.

The next game is Black Desert Online. It’s an MMO that’s on the Xbox One X and on Windows. By virtue of it being an MMO I would rather play it on my computer, so this game isn’t going to sell me the Xbox One X.

Then there is Sea Of Thieves. If there is one game that made me wish I had an xbox One X, It could be this game… Key word could. It looks like a pirate MMO where you team up with other players to search for treasure and fight other pirate crews. This game could be good depending on the amount of depth the game actually holds. But we won’t be sure about that until the game comes out. Could Sea of Thieves be the revival of Rare? Only time will tell. Oh… Never mind it’s also for windows, I’ll just get it on steam.

This game “Tecoma” had the worst presentation I have ever seen in my life. The point of presenting your game at e3 is show off a proof of concept, Right? well “Tecoma” forgoes explaining what the game is about for the most vague trailer I have ever saw. Give it a watch, and try to tell me what it’s about without looking it up online. I dare you.

Next is Super Lucky’s Tale. It looks like a 3d platformer from the ps2 era, and I don’t mean that as a complement. I don’t mind styalized graphics, but why was this game shown off at E3? Isn’t the big selling point of The XboneX is that it’s the most powerfull console on the market? if that’s the case show me some games that I can’t play on any other console other than a XboneX! But besides that it doesn’t look like it brings any new mechanics to the 3D platformer genre, so i’m going to pass on this one.

Wow, Going through every game sure is taking a long time. If I talk about all the games in this press conference, I’ll be here forever.

The point is that Microsoft Really screwed up this E3. Apparently, Microsoft is betting a lot on the success of the XboneX. Well if that is the case, then Microsoft sure does have an odd way of showing that! How the hell is Microsoft going to sell a 500$ console if all the games on it are available on a much more affordable console, And doesn’t show off the graphics that the Xbox One X is supposedly able to pull off?

I applaud Microsoft for trying to make their E3 More about the games, But this just isn’t the way to do it. The Xbox One X looks like it’s going to be a failure unless Microsoft does something fast.

In entertainment I often see time travel used as a catalyst to move the stories to specific setting. Very rarely do these stories actually go deep into the mechanics of time travel. So today I will be listing off my favorite time travel movies that are actually about time travel.

To not confuse anybody that means that the movie has to specifically be about time travel and it can’t be used just to move the story to a different setting. A good example of What’s not going on this list is Doctor who.

and the terminator

Very rarely in doctor who does time travel actually play in role of the plot in each episode.

Without further ado here are my 3 Favorite time travel movies about time travel.

#1 Primer

Primer is every nerds fantasy and every average consumers headache. If you aren’t willing to put in the work and really focus, you will not understand this movie. What I mean by that is that this movie doesn’t attempt to dumb itself down, you either get what is going on or you are left in the dark simple as that. But if you are willing to try to understand what is going on you will be rewarded with an amazing story of distrust and backstabbing with a whole bunch of mind bending time travel.

I don’t wan’t to spoil the movie, but I will give you a basic run down of the premise. The story follows two entrepreneurs/engineers named Aaron and Abe. During work one day they somehow discover time travel. after building a machine to time travel with, they immediately try to profit with it. While being careful trying to not mess up the timeline, they memorize what stocks go up, then travel to the past to invest in the stocks that go up. At first they only use time travel in this way. But then they start traveling back behind each others backs and start using the time machine for more personal things. and pretty soon you have a situation that gets out of hand.

This movie isn’t for the casual viewer since its dialogue has a lot of technobabble and there is a lot to keep up with plot wise. But if you are willing to put in effort you won’t be dissapointed. for being an indie movie with only a budget of 5,000$ this movie is incredibly well written and deep. Although the plot it’s well written and it’s fun to figure out the plot, primer really doesn’t have much else going for it… With that being said I give “primer” an 8/10. But don’t listen to me, watch it yourself and make your own opinion about it. you will be glad you did.

#2 The Butterfly effect

The Butterfly Effect is a 2004 movie written and directed by Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber. The story follows a 20 year old college student named Even Treborn who has the ability to inhabit his past self (which basically means all his memories travel back to his past self). With this ability he tries to change his life for the better by changing his past behaviors. But unbeknownst to him, his actions will have consequences that he won’t be able to predict. Or a Butterfly Effect

this movie is really good at showing the unpredictable aspects of time travel. Even might try to beat up his past selfs bullies, but that action causes a butterfly effect that causes him to somehow lose his limbs. Besides time travel, this movie also explores themes of dysfunctional families and mental illness.

there is something you should know about this movie before you watch it. And that is there are four different endings, and you will get a different ending depending on what version you watch. I watch the directors cut, and out of all of them, the directors cut is the saddest but it ends the movie beautifully. I give this film a 7/10, because in some spots the acting isn’t to my liking and the cinematography is very much of it’s time. But if you can look past it’s dated aesthetics you will be greeted with a great character driven drama with heavy sci-fi themes.

#3 Back to the Future trilogy

I know that this kinda breaks my one rule that I stated in the beginning. but although time travel does take a back seat to the action and comedy, that doesn’t mean that time travel isn’t acknowledged at all. In fact (if you weren’t tipped off to the title of the movie) time travel has a huge role in how the story plays out (especially in part 2), so I would argue that this does work with my rule that I stated in the beginning of this post.

With that out of the way let’s go in to detail why this movie is so darn good. What I think is the main contributor to the success of this movie is the character. Doc brown and Marty mcfly are the single most iconic film duo in history. And for good reason, their relationship with each other acts as a foil to each one. Marty is the easy going youth and doc brown is the crazy and wacky scientist. It’s fun watching the two characters rub off on each other and seeing each one grow as a character.

But besides the two main characters there is also more colorful characters like Biff, the classic bully and later a villain. Jennifer, Marty’s love interest. George mcfly, Marty’s nerdy dad turned badass. and of course our favorite dog Einstein

With a beautifully crafted score by Alan Silvestri, Great action set-pieces, timeless comedy, and memorable characters. You got yourself an instant classic. The trillogy as a whole gets a 9/10. All of the films are incredibly solid, but there isn’t enough umph to give it a 10/10. Never the less you will be entertained by these films.

So those are my 3 favorite time travel films. What did you think about the list and what are some of your favorites? Let me know down in the comments below 🙂

Pepsi Fire is the worst thing I have ever tasted in My entire life. No that isn’t an exaggeration, It’s actually that bad.

You might be thinking, “well, that’s just your opinion.” You’re right, it is my opinion, It’s my opinion that it’s a goddamn fact that this is the most heinous creation mankind has ever had the displeasure of creating.

What’s so wrong with it? well for one thing its cinnamon flavor… you know, like from your favorite cinnamon challenge videos

Like, who thought it would be a good idea to put cinnamon of all things in a soft drink. Yes i know that it’s an artificial flavor, but it tastes like cinnamon and it has the same aftertaste you would get from eating cinnamon.

In all my life, I never saw a cinnamon flavored anything, so who’s bright idea was it to make a soda drink out of it? that’s like making a Soft Drink out of vinegar… I mean with the right recipes it can be used for great affect, but under no circumstances should it be eaten by itself.

apparently there was actually sister drink that goes with it aptly called Pepsi Ice.

It’s mint flavored

As far as I know, This was actually sold for a short period of time internationally before coming here to the states. In the countries of Guam, Saipan, Thailand, Mexico, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, and Vietnam. And, get this, It wasn’t recieved well… If they know it sold like crap why are they selling it here?

As far as I’m concerned this is a waste of shelf space and I can’t wait until they get discontinued. I’ll give this an item about a 2/10 just, the only reason I give it a 2 instead of a 1 is that i’m sure that it has some people that like it and I don’t want to offend the 2 people who think that way.

My first Mario game was Super Mario sunshine for the Nintendo Gamecube. Although it holds a great deal of nostalgia value for me, after playing all the main line Mario games I have to come clean and admit that super Mario sunshine is the worst Mario game.

Before I start to explain why I think this. I first have to say that I love Mario. Ever since I was young I have been enjoying this fat Italian plumbers adventures. great controls, solid level design, memorable worlds. All of these are what you expect when you play a Mario game. But even though they are all essentially platforms all of the mainline games are different and add something new to the formula. So here is a quick rundown of all the Mario games just to give context to why I think Mario Sunshine is the worst in the series

The first Super Mario Innovated the platforming genre. you can make a case that this is the most innovative game of all time, and for good reason. The controls feel are extremely tight and responsive, and the levels are designed to be fair and challenging. It’s never the games fault when you die, it’s your own fault. Over 30 years later and it’s still a solid, fun game.

Then after Mario 2, They perfected the 2d platformer with Super Mario bros 3. With this new installment the level design and solid controls where back better than ever. but they also added an overworld system with diverging paths, A p meter that fills up when Mario’s momentum builds up, and a bunch of new powerups. With all of those elements added up together, you have my favorite game in the NES library.

Then they came out with super Mario world which is more or less Mario 3 on with better graphics. I know there are a lot more differences than that but that’s essentially what it brings new to the table. Also it’s the first game where Yoshi shows up

Then, In 1996, Super Mario 64 came out.

Remember how I said that you could make an argument of how Super Mario 1 is the most influential game? well Mario 64, I think, Is what most people think is the most influential game of all time. There where 3d games before this, but none of them felt this good or fluid to move around in. This was also the first non linear mission based Mario game. Meaning that the levels have multiple missions to complete that can be completed out of order. Many people have this as their greatest game of all time, and I think, for a good reason.

Now skipping sunshine for a little bit let’s talk about the Galaxy games and Super Mario 3d World. First Galaxy 1 and 2. Super Mario galaxy 1 and 2 are both games on the Wii. And because of that they both incorporate motion control. But luckily it’s integrated well enough so it not only doesn’t impede the game play, but sometimes it even facilitates it. It goes back to a more linear style, but that’s alright because all the levels in this game are brimming with good level design that utilizes it’s gravity mechanics to its fullest.

That brings us to super Mario 3d world. Super Mario 3d worlds gimmick is that it’s a 3d game designed like a 2d mario game. They are able to do this by always keeping the camera at a fixed angle and your goal is to complete the stages by touching the flagpole. The level design in this game is the highlight for me. Every level is brimming with creativity and new gimmicks to explore. If you are looking for a classic platforming game then this game is the one for you.

That brings us back to Sunshine.

Now before I continue, I just want to say that I don’t think Sunshine is a bad game, In fact I think it’s a very good game. But it does have some issues that I think need to be pointed out.

Number 1: Glitches

This has to be the most glitchy Mario game I have ever played. Now i’m not saying the other games never had any gliches but the frequency of when I experience the gliches are light and day. Remember that pachinko level?

<—-This one

on more than one occasion there where spots where Mario would be stuck on the nail forcing me to quit the level and reenter. If it was just that level that was glitchy I wouldn’t mind so much, but the entire game has glitches that just ruins the immersion. This game just isn’t as polished as the rest of the series.

Number 2: Gameplay

As a sequel to super Mario 64, Super Mario sunshine Took some of the movement options that Mario had in that game and added fludd.

Now Fludd, or your Flash Liquidizer Ultra Dousing Device, expands Mario’s move set by giving Mario the ability to hover, and the ability to shoot water for attacking and cleaning goop. Now I’m going to try to explain to you why I think the inclusion of fludd was a bad idea

First of all because of the new Hover ability, the pace of the game is slowed down to a halt. With hovering it takes forever to do anything. Now compare the act of hovering to long jumping, which is faster? Long jumping, but not only is it faster, it feels more fluid and responsive to long jump over a gap instead of just hovering over it.

The second reason I don’t like Fludd is that he Feels like a safety net. All of the challenge of platforming has been erased with the inclusion of fludd and replaced with challenge with controlling boats and other poorly designed gimmicks (refer back to pachinko stage)

That’s not to say that there aren’t any levels that utilize flood for platforming. One of my favorite levels of the game has you jumping across great distances with the boost powerup for flood

This game would have been up there with the best of the series if there where more moments like this.

one other thing that I don’t like about the gameplay is Marios downgraded movelist. In mario 64 you could crawl, longjump, and back flip. Sure you could spin jump in Sunshine, but that never feels as satisfying to pull off as a longjump.

Number 3: Level Design

A big reason I play these games are for the level design. And out of all Mario games, Super Mario sunshine has the worst. And I think the underlying problem with the level design is the dev team trying to keep continuity intact.

What I mean by this is that Is that super Mario sunshine tries so hard to keep the levels logically consistent at the consequence of lowering the quality of the level. The best Example I can think of this is Pinna Park

Pinna Park Is an amusement park at isle delphino plaza. And since it’s an amusement park there are a bunch of rides (obviously) but it seems like the dev team tried to make the level seem like a real amusement park instead of trying to make it fun to traverse. If you try the red coin mission in this level, you will realize just how annoying and poorly designed this level is.

That’s not to say there are only bad levels, In fact my favorite Mario levels of all time are in this game. The secret levels that take fludd away from you really challenge your mastery of the games mechanics.

These levels are fun but they are only a small part of the whole game.

Number 4: The Missions

The missions in this game are so goddamn annoying. And I’m not just talking about the pachinko missions or the missions you have to steer a boat. I’m talking about how most of these missions are designed. Now to be fair most of them aren’t that bad. But some of them just go off the deep end.

The worst one in this game is Yoshi’s Fruit Adventure.

This has to be one of the most tedious levels in all of gaming. I’m going to explain how you beat it and keep in mind if you screw up once, you have to start all over. So the plot of this mission is that there is a star off of Rico harbor, but the star is in a high place so you can’t get to it with conventional means. The only way to get the star is to get Yoshi to spray the fish jumping out of the water to make platforms to get to where the star is. The whole way over there you are passing over water, so if you screw up once you have to start all over. Here is the video of this level.

The most popular type of movie I see getting made this day and age are superhero movies. Because they are so popular It feels like I can’t go a week without someone asking me “what’s your favorite superhero movie?” or “who’s your favorite superhero?”. And every time I get that question I answer back the same thing every time, “Donnie Darko.”

What is “Donnie darko”? Well “Donnie darko” is the brain child of Richard Kelly who wrote and directed this film. It came out in 2001 with a budget of 4.5 Million Dollars. Now I don’t blame you If you haven’t ever heard of this film, because not that many people saw it when it first came out. If you haven’t seen this film I implore you to watch it immediately because this film in my opinion is a modern classic.

Now, if you have done some research on this film, you might notice that this doesn’t look like a superhero movie. In fact, it looks more like a teen drama movie than a superhero one. Well you’re right, It really is a teen drama first and foremost, But if you pay attention to the plot of the movie, you will start to realize that “donnie darko” is himself a superhero.

Section 1: Premise

Donnie Darko has one of the most intriguing premises I have ever seen. Donnie Darko (played by Jake Gyllenhaal) would be a normal high school boy with normal high school problems if it wasn’t for his mental illnesses and a man in a bunny suit named frank that only he can see.

One night, Frank tells Donnie to follow him outside the house to a golf course. At the golf course, Frank declares that the world is going to end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds. The next morning we discover that Donnie’s bedroom was crushed by a plane turbine. Convinced Frank saved his life, Donnie decides to follow all of franks orders… no matter how sinister and evil they may be.

For the entire rest of the film, we as the audience are trying to piece together what is going on. Who is frank? Where did the Plane Turbine come from? Is this all in Donnie’s head? Is the world really ending? How is it ending? all these questions make this movie a compelling mystery. The main appeal of this movie is trying to piece together what is going on since the Movie doesn’t flat out tell you what is happening. But there are many clues along the way that will help you on your journey.

Section 2: plot

In this section I am going to try, with the best of my ability, to explain the plot of this film. If you haven’t seen this film, a lot of this won’t make any sense so please go watch the movie first.

This entire movie essentially plays out in a time paradox. That Plane Turbine that crashed into Donnie’s bedroom somehow caused the birth of an entire alternate universe, called the tangent universe, that strayed away from the original universe. The reason the world is going to end is because this alternate universe is unstable and threatens to destroy the Original universe.

It’s up to Donnie to save the world by returning The plane turbine to the original universe. He is the living receiver, and with that title comes super strength and telekinesis. Kind of like a super hero.

Now in the context of the movie, there is no way to know that if you haven’t read the philosophy of time travel, a fictional book in the movie. You can read that here.

Now personally, I don’t think the plot is all that important(or good). What’s really important is the themes and the character development that Donnie goes through throughout the film. The themes of mental illness, existential dread, and corruption are all themes that overshadow the kind of out there plot and the super powers that Donnie gets.

That’s why I prefer this movie to other superhero movies. Superhero movies are mostly about the action, and about how cool the superhero themselves are. But this movie forgoes most of the action for a more emotional tale about a boy coming to terms with his appending doom 🙂

Section 3: Characters

All of the characters in this movie are extremely well written, even the side characters that don’t have much screen time have memorable lines. But out of all the characters, my favorite is Jim Cunningham (played by Patrick Swayze)

Patrick Swayze does a great performance making this motivational speaker look like a complete con. And my favorite scene in the whole film is when Donnie confronts Jim and outs him as the con he is.

Section 4: Presentation

Richard Kelly did a great job setting the film in the 80’s, because of that the “donnie darko” is filled with great music from that era.

All the camera shots in this film give either a dream like feeling or an unsettling feeling depending on what kind of scene you are in.

There is a little CG in this film, that looks surprisingly well for 2001

Overall, I think Richard Kelly did a great job directing this film, even IF you overlook the fact that this was his debut movie.

Section 5: Conclusion

God I love this movie… I know I probably did a crap job trying to explain what makes this movie so special, so all I can do is beg you to watch it. I promise that you won’t regret it. I give this film a 10/10. It isn’t perfect, but it’s flaws are so minuscule that they get completely overshadowed by what this film does right. It’s been a week since I first watched it and i’m still thinking about it. If that doesn’t speak for the quality of the movie, then I don’t know what does.

Sorry that I couldn’t post an article today. Since I started this blog 2 days ago I tried to make it my goal to post an article every day. But it looks like I have already failed.

But that doesn’t mean that I’m not working on anything. Currently I’m working on a review for a movie called “Donnie Darko.”

It’s a great film, but because it’s so complex, there has to be a lot of research done in order for me to write the best article I can for the movie.

So from now on, you can expect an article every other day from me! I will be alternating from a game review and a film review. I might even do opinion pieces every once and a while. Huge thanks to all the people who take the time out of their day to read my blog, you have no idea how much it means to me that there are people who like my blog. Thanks 🙂

In all of video gaming there is one game which I think is the most underrated game of the 21st century. and that game is F-zero GX!!!

Made by Amusement Vision (the same studio who made Super Monkey Ball 1 and 2) in 2003; “F-zero GX” is probably the most underrated racing game of all time selling only about 300,000 copies during the time it was being sold.

In this article I’ll be going over the gameplay, story, soundtrack, and presentation to try to explain to you why I think this game is so good. and maybe try to explain why it sold so poorly, and why you definitely play this 14 year old game.

Section 1: the Gameplay

So like I said before, this is a racing game. But it’s not just any racing game, It’s an futureracing game. What I mean by that is that F-zero isn’t about racing cars you would see in real life, In F-zero your racing hover cars from the 24th century! In the 24th century there is a racing circuit called F-zero (instead of F-1 racing it’s F-0… get it?), this is where most of the game takes place. Over 5 different tracks you have to race 29 other racers to shoot for the first place trophy

Because it’s the future the cars are magnetized to the race track you can race up the wall, upside down or any direction you can think of. this allows all the tracks in the game to be complex and varied. My favorite track is fire field!

Fire field is basically a cylinder, so that lets you drive around on any side. This stage does a great job showing off this mechanic.

Like any other racing game, F-zero has boost pads you run over to gain speed. A health bar and a Boost button you press to boost. What’s interesting about the boost in this game is that the Boost in this game takes away from your health so there is an extra layer of strategy with the boost. There are a lot of traps on the tracks so use your boost wisely!

Now on to the vehicles. There are over 40 different vehicles and all of them feel like completely different cars when driving them.

Some cars might have low acceleration but a high top speed, they also may have great all around stats but terrible handling. The game designers made sure there was a lot of variety so that every player will find the car that suits there play style the best. Trust me you’ll need it, because this game gets hard. and I mean ball busting hard.

That brings me to the next point, it’s difficulty. At first you’re going to fail a lot, no matter how good you are at video games you’re going to suck at this game. But the more you play it, the more you understand all the mechanics and memorize all the tracks, the better you get at the game. And that is what makes this game so satisfying to play. seeing yourself improve is probably one of the most satisfying feeling you can have in life, and the gameplay of “F-zero GX” brings out this feeling.